2025-08-29
Recently, Professor Jiang Zhiyong’s research team from our university published a research paper titled Photocatalytic Asymmetric Oxidation of Phosphines with Water in the international chemistry journal Journal of the American Chemical Society. The first author is Dai Yating, a doctoral student at our university; the corresponding authors are Dr. Yin Yanli (a young faculty member) and Professor Jiang Zhiyong; Henan Normal University is the first author’s institution.
P-chiral compounds are of significant application value in asymmetric catalysis, chiral pharmaceuticals, and functional materials due to their unique structures and properties. The efficient synthesis of P-chiral phosphine oxides has become a research focus for numerous chemists. This study represents the first successful implementation of a photocatalytic asymmetric oxidation reaction between tertiary phosphine compounds and water, yielding P-chiral phosphine oxides. Previously, research on the asymmetric oxidation of tertiary phosphines was limited to a single case and required stoichiometric amounts of chiral alcohol under Appel conditions. The research team employed a self-developed photosensitizer, TDPZ, in conjunction with a chiral Brønsted acid catalytic system, utilizing 2-pyridone as an oxidant. Through a radical reaction pathway, they efficiently achieved the asymmetric oxidation of a wide range of triaryl tertiary phosphines and diaryl alkyl tertiary phosphines, producing the corresponding P-chiral tertiary phosphine oxides. Notably, P-chiral triaryl phosphine oxides were synthesized and reported for the first time. Additionally, the study utilized H218O as an oxygen source to efficiently synthesize 18O-labeled P-chiral tertiary phosphine oxides. This research not only expands the application scope of photocatalytic asymmetric synthesis but also provides a novel strategy for the synthesis of P-chiral compounds.
Paper Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jacs.5c11656
(School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiang Tao, Wang Manman)
